The White House on Monday joined various Jewish groups and Ohio lawmakers in denouncing neo-Nazis who marched through Columbus on Saturday.
The marchers chanted racial slurs and white nationalist slogans while carrying Nazi flags. The White House called it a “sickening display” and said it was hostile to American values.
Local police began to receive reports around 1:15 p.m. of about a dozen people wearing all black with red face masks marching through the Short North Arts District. Red swastikas donned the flags the marchers carried, and one person was leading a chant, “Bow down, n*****!” through a bullhorn.
“President Biden abhors the hateful poison of Nazism, antisemitism, and racism — which are hostile to everything the United States stands for, including protecting the dignity of all our citizens and the freedom to worship,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates said Monday morning.
“Hate directed against any of us is a threat to every single one of us. This sickening display comes during a tragic rise in antisemitic rhetoric and violence that is a crises the American people should all come together against,” Bates said.
Gov. Mike DeWine (R-OH) posted a statement to X, writing, “We will not tolerate hate in Ohio. Neo-Nazis — their faces hidden behind red masks — roamed streets in Columbus today, carrying Nazi flags and spewing vile and racist speech against people of color and Jews.”
“There is no place in this state for hate, bigotry, anti-semitism or violence, and we must therefore denounce it wherever we see it,” DeWine wrote.
The Ohio event happened just one week after protesters waved Nazi flags outside of a community theater production of The Diary of Anne Frank in Michigan, and nearly two weeks after protesters held racist, homophobic, and sexist signs at Texas State University.
Columbus City Attorney Zach Klein also posted a statement to X, writing that his office would be monitoring the group and staying in close contact with the Columbus Police. “Take your flags and the masks you hide behind and go home and never come back,” Klein said.
In another statement posted to X, Mayor Andrew Ginther said that the Columbus community stands against hatred and bigotry.
Lee Shapiro, regional director for the American Jewish Committee, said Columbus police were “acting to quell this unauthorized march” in a statement Saturday.
“The vile display of hate by a small band of masked neo-Nazis in the Short North is another sad example of the bigotry that we have witnessed across the country,” Shapiro said.
Ohio has been receiving intense media attention this year. President-elect J.D. Vance ran for vice president on President-elect Donald Trump‘s presidential ticket and won the White House on Nov. 5, but they sparked drama along the way.
During the presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump on Sept. 9, Trump spread unproven rumors of Haitian immigrants eating cats and dogs. Vance added fuel to the fire when he joined in on the claims, causing Springfield officials to plead with the candidates to stop spreading rumors and bringing negative attention to the city.
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Oren Segal, vice president for the Anti-Defamation League Center on Extremism, told the New York Times that a new St. Louis group named Hate Club took credit for the Columbus protest and that it could have been sparked by a rivalry with another group in Ohio.
“At the end of day they want to create fear and anxiety in communities and get a photo op,” Segal said.